Something Wicked
by Hadican
Summary: "I'm not the only one to blame here, kid," Bill sneered. "You can thank ole Sixer and Fez for this too. We wouldn't be in this situation if it wasn't for them." Dipper's heart beat faster as the dream demon drew closer. "What are you talking about, Bill?"
1. 01: Speak of the Devil

**Author's Note: **Thought this was an interesting premise. Not sure how consistently I'll be able to update, but here we go!

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**Something Wicked**

**Chapter 01: Speak of the Devil**

Dipper watched the Oregon scenery pass by as he took the bus back to Gravity Falls. The now seventeen year old was excited to be returning for another summer before his final year of High School.

Not much had changed with Gravity Falls in four years which was nice. The town was like a stable constant in Dipper's life as he faced the uncertainty of his future. Ford's offer still stood. Dipper's promise to see Mabel through their high school years was nearing completion.

Once he graduated he had some choices to make. For one, figure out where he wanted to go to school. His grades had granted him access to almost any school he wished, so now it was just a matter of what he wanted to do with himself.

His fingers idly tapped his knee cap as he thought.. Gravity Falls would be a nice distraction from it all. A return to form for Dipper. After all, he worked with Ford during the summers. He needed to think about if he wanted to go with Ford full time once he graduated or continue his education. It was a conundrum.

The sensation of two fingers "walking" up his shoulder removed him from his inner musings.

Mabel blinked back at him and smiled wide. Her teeth now free of braces. She had been so excited to get them off last year, and she could not wait to show all her friends in Gravity Falls the fruits of all those years of being restrained by metal dental wear.

Though, now that he thought about it, nothing really held Mabel back, ever.

"What's up?" he asked.

"You just have that, "I'm concentrating super hard instead of getting excited to be back at Gravity Falls," look again. You've been doing it a lot more lately."

She held up a compact mirror to prove it to him. His own, neutral facial expression greeted him back.

"Hm, yeah, guess I do," he said. "Any suggestions, Doctor Mabel?"

"Hm, regular doses of hanging out with Wendy after work and doing nerdy research things with great uncle Ford. Boxing lessons with Grunkle Stan. Oh! And of course, hanging out with me! Plus whatever else you wanna do! The world is our oyster!"

He smiled.

"Sounds like a plan. I'll be sure to do all those things."

"You better, Doctor's orders!"

Gravity Falls' bus stop came into view and the bus pulled into the stop with only one unnervingly long squeal of the breaks and a jolt to a stop.

Dipper steadied himself and reached for his luggage just as the driver began his usual spiel.

"Alright folks, we've arrived at Gravity Falls, Oregon. Be sure to remove all personal effects as you leave the bus and thank you for riding with Speedy Beaver."

Mabel was already down the aisle with her things. Some of which took a tumble as she hurried toward the exit. Shaking his head good naturally Dipper picked up the things she had dropped in her haste and put them with his own luggage. Looking forward Dipper smiled. It looked like they had a welcoming party and with a new little addition.

Bundled in Melody's arms was a baby swaddled in a blanket. A teal beanie with a question mark symbol on it fit cozily on the babe's head.

He exited the bus just as Melody asked Mabel if she wanted to hold the child.

Gushing the brunette dropped all of her luggage right on the around and formed her arms in a shape to more easily cradle the baby once they were in her arms.

The bus pulled away just as Dipper sat his own luggage on the ground and got a better look at the baby. Soos came up beside him with a contented smile.

"Hey, dudes, isn't she, like, the greatest?"

"She's perfect!" Mabel gushed as quietly as possible so as not to wake the slumbering child. "What's her name?"

"Mel," Soos said, smiling. "We thought, well, it would be cool to name her after her mom."

"Certainly makes her name easy to remember," Melody quipped with a smile. Mabel nodded her head and gently stroked the back of the child's tiny hand in wonder.

"Hey, what are we, chopped liver?" Mabel carefully returned Mel to her mother and spun around to see Grunkle Stan standing with his hands on his hips. Great uncle Ford stood next to him with a smile.

"Of course you aren't chopped liver! You're my Grunkles!" the teen threw herself at the duo and gave them both a hug.

Dipper watched the scene with a fond smile.

"What's up, Dipper?" startled Dipper looked over to see Wendy standing next to him. He smiled, a light blush dusting his cheeks. Childhood crushes were still hard to get over it seemed.

"Oh, hey, Wendy. Nothing much, just glad to be back."

"Good to have you back," she smiled. Removing his own signature Pine Tree hat, Wendy traded it back for her original hat. A ritual they had begun every summer since. They would exchange hats again at the end of summer when he left for his final year of high school.

"Hey, quit flirtin', kid, and come see us, we ain't getting any younger. In fact, I think Ford over here is about to keel over any second!"

Snorting at Stan's comment Dipper walked over to his Grunkles and promptly got put into a headlock by Stan.

"You check out that gym I told ya about?" Stan asked, releasing Dipper and patting him on the back roughly.

"Yeah, it's great, Grunkle Stan," Dipper said, flexing his arm which was starting to show the fruits of his labor. It had definitely gotten the attention of several of his schoolmates back home. He had been asked out on more than one occasion.

He had taken up boxing lessons after a particularly rough beat down during freshman year of high school.

"Atta boy," Grunkle Stan grinned patting his shoulders roughly once more before sending him over to Ford. .

"Hello, Dipper, it is good to see you," the man said with a smile. Dipper smiled up at him. Though he had grown significantly taller since his first trip to Gravity Falls he was still shorter than his Grunkles. Not by a large margin, but he knew he was not quite done growing.

"Good to see you too, and it's great to be back in Gravity Falls," the brown-haired teen said.

"I've been working on some new research. If you are interested the papers are down in the lab, though I image today you'll want to rest from your trip and catch up with everyone."

"That sounds great. I'll check out the papers first thing in the morning."

With a nod the welcoming party and the twins made their way back to the Shack. A new section had been built on to accommodate the larger amount of people that now stayed in the building.

Heading upstairs the two dropped their things off in the same room they had stayed in during their first trip to Gravity Falls. Then the duo made their way back downstairs and continued to catch up with everyone.

Time flew and before long Dipper's cell phone screen red out 11:46. Yawning he stood up and stretched, satisfied when he heard several pops he rested his arms at his side and smiled at the others.

"Well, I'm pretty beat, think I'm going to turn in for the night."

Most of his friends and family wished him a good-night, or in the case of Grunkle Stan, a grunt of acknowledgement.

Once upstairs Dipper made his bed and laid down on it with a contented sigh. He knew he had thought it a thousand times before, but it really was good to be back. Especially back around the friends he had here. Not that he did not have friends back home, but the friends here had literally fought alongside him, risking life and limb to save their dimension from Bill and his henchmaniacs.

Huh, that was funny…

He had not thought about Bill or Weirdmageddon in a long time. Not since those initial nightmares had finally been put to rest several years ago. Life had been peaceful since then, but Gravity Falls was no less weird. Odd creatures still cropped up, but Bill, of course, never made an appearance.

He took a shuttering breath and took comfort in his next thought.

_The memory gun took care of that._

Dipper pulled the covers up and around himself before settling into a more comfortable position.

His eyes started to grow heavy and he yawned.

"Aw, you almost looks cute when you sleep, Pine Tree...for an ugly human that is…"

_Huh?_

His eyes snapped open and he gasped. The transition between reality and his own mindscape was always indistinguishable to him. That was, until Bill showed up.

"Bill?!"

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_Chapter 01: Speak of the Devil End_


	2. Chapter 2: And he appears

**Author's Note: **Sorry for the wait! Here's Chapter 2 of Something Wicked!

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Chapter 2: And he appears...

Axolotl probably thought they were being hilarious. Bill had never felt this powerless before in his whole existence. Which was saying something, because he had existed for a long time. Billions of those insignificant blips of time humans called a life time. The dream demon had seen it all. Experienced it all, or perhaps, all that was worth dirtying his hands in.

Some things, he found, were not worth the effort.

This was one of those times.

Indeed, he, as embarrassing as it had been, had cried out for salvation. Axolotl answered. Though nothing in this universe or even all the rest could escape the power of words.

Words, especially when used carelessly, could destroy whole worlds. Whole realities and the spaces in between torn asunder from one, simple, utterance. Throw in a handshake, and well, things got a whole lot worse.

So, Bill begrudgingly clamped on the anger he felt at Axolotl for now.

He could not make plans. Not yet. Not until he dealt with the current problem rearing its ugly head.

Bill was being pursued by an entity. One he had yet to deal in over a trillion years and how he wanted to tear apart Stanford, his obnoxious twin, and those meddlesome children. Oh, he would make it last too. Until each begged pitifully for the other's lives to be spared.

His upset would be put to good use until he could deal with Axolotl.

He just had to live through this to see that day arrive, and he was sure he could stoke the flames of hatred enough to reach his goal.

But first...he needed to play nice.

His body gave a creak as he opened another portal in some other dumb human's mind. He had to keep switching minds if he wanted to keep ahead of his pursuer and that was starting to take a tole.

He was glad he had hidden himself all throughout human history. If he had not, well...there was no way he would be able to enter all these flesh bags minds. It probably would have made the chase boring for the entity, if it could even feel the thrill of the chase, that is.

Each portal he made into the next mindscape was becoming more and more unstable as he continued..

It would not be long until he was completely out of power and at the beast's mercy, but all he needed was one more portal. One specific portal.

And he was glad he had tricked Pine Tree and inhabited his body for a bit. That made things easier on the dream demon. He did not have to expend as much energy

The portal in question opened for him and he hid inside. Now he just needed to wait for Pine Tree to fall asleep.

Time passed and Bill idly watched through Pine Tree's eyes as he laughed and caught up with his obnoxious friends and family. It was so boring the dream demon almost fell asleep, which was impossible. Their conversations were also far too sappy he almost wanted the entity to find him and end it now.

He watched as Pine Tree grew tired and made his way upstairs.

Finally!

He appeared behind the flesh bag as he appeared in his own mindscape. Eyes closed, waiting to be whisked away into the land of dreams. First things first though.

The dream demon gave the boy a once over. Per usual the meatbags grew quickly, but Pine Tree was still recognizable. Bill never forgot those he wanted to seek vengeance on.

Sneering he spoke up.

"Aw, you almost looks cute when you sleep, Pine Tree...for an ugly human that is…"

It was like pouring gasoline on a fire.

The teen startled and jerked awake. The shock, horror, was gratifying.

"Bill?!"

"Pine Tree?!" The dream demon gasped in false alarm, mocking the teen.

-  
Inwardly Dipper was panicking.

This can't be happening! This can't be happening!

"You…!" The teen stopped short and got his real first good look at the dream demon in almost four years. He looked... terrible. Cipher was still shaped like a triangle, but his sides were chipping. Fine cracks scattered all over his now dull surface. He looked like he would crumble into dust at any moment and even though he was levitating it was clear that that was taking all he had. He did not even light up when he talked. Dipper's voice was nothing more than a whisper when he asked, "What happened to you?"

"Aw, is that concern I hear, Pine Tree?" The dream demon batted his single eye at him.

Dipper's lip curled in disgust. As if he was concerned about the being who almost killed his sister.

"No! Just... surprised is all…"

Because they were in the dreamscape. Anyone could be anything in here if they only thought about it, and though Bill was an entity trapped here, he too had no problems bending everything within to his will. He was not physical here, so why did he look like this?

"Well you shouldn't be, because this is all your fault. Well, I guess I shouldn't give you all the credit...it was your family and miserable friends I have to thank for this."

Protectiveness flashed through Dipper as Bill mentioned his friends and family.

"We beat you," Dipper said, furrowing his brows. "Ford, he…he erased Grunkle Stan's mind while you were in it, you...you shouldn't be here!"

Grunkle Stan had almost been lost forever, and Bill was still here. It was gut wrenching to even think about.

There was low laughter from the dream demon, but it raised no further than an unnerving chuckle.

"Oh, I have my ways, but none of that matters now."

The brown-haired teen swallowed thickly when the dream demon turned his back to him. The urge to run was rising, but Bill was obviously in a weakened state. Plus, without a vessel or his physical form returned to him, what harm could he really cause Dipper here? There were a plethora of terrifying examples that flashed across the teen's mind of what Bill could do with mental trauma alone, but he stamped them down.

He was in control here. This was his mindscape, so long as he remained vigilant he would be alright.

"You see, Pine Tree, we have a problem," Bill began. "Soon poor ole' Bill Cipher will be no more."

"What do you mean?"

Was that not a good thing? Of course, not a good thing for Bill, but for everyone he had plans on getting revenge on it was. There should be no we. There was a catch, there had to be.

Bill's arm shook with the effort of raising his cane. The tip touched Dipper's nose and the boy flinched back.

"What I mean is that it is coming."

"It?"

"It is going to be hard to explain to that, poor, poor, dumb human brain of yours, but I'm going to try, kid," Bill began, twirling his cane around with some dramatic flair. Apparently he still had enough energy to waste on theatrics. "I'd like to think I'm pretty powerful, but unfortunately for me, there are others...And one in particular. Hm, let's give it a name that you can understand without losing your mind to madness...Marsephotec."

"Marsephotec?" he echoed.

"Yes, it is a being above time, unfortunately," Bill said, a little chagrined, from the looks of it. Dipper faintly wondered why. "It is mindless, only concerned for its duty, unable to be reasoned with."

He spoke as if he had tried to reason with the entity. Obviously, that had not worked.

"What's its duty?"

"To make sure we all follow the rules," Bill muttered bitterly. "You see, Pine Tree. Time Baby kept time in balance in this universe, you saw how upset he was when I screwed around with this dimension, but that meddlesome entity has been in the works since before that obnoxious infant was a twinkle in this universe's eye. Marsephotec does not keep time in balance so much as it makes sure the story plays out like it's supposed to. The way your meddlesome friends and family defeated me was-"

"Dipper!" Mabel's voice caterwauled and if Bill had, had the energy the brown-haired teen was certain red flames would have erupted from all around him.

"Of all the times!" he snarled, the noise tinny and unnerving. Angry Bill was always unsettling, but furious Bill made that version of the dream demon seem like a purring house cat in comparison. He flashed red, once, one corner of him fell away and disintegrated. The dream demon could not have cared less at that moment. His cane was underneath Dipper's chin, tilting his head up, and forced the teen to look at Bill directly in the eye. "This isn't finished, Pine Tree. But for now, I need you to forget!"

The dream demon placed his cane, then, on the boy's forehead. Dipper flinched. There was no sensation, but his body still jolted at being in close proximity to the dream demon.

The dreamscape melted around him and with it his memories faded into nonsensical mush. The waking world rushed up to meet him, and that involved a giddy Mabel about two inches from his face.

"Geez, Mabel, give me some room!" the teen squawked, sitting up.

"Hurry up and get dressed, Dippin' Sauce. Breakfast is ready!" Mabel said before running down the stairs at full speed.

Dipper swallowed and moved to get up. He tried to recall what he had dreamed about last night, but came up with nothing.

Slipping from beneath his blanket the teen got dressed and made his way down stairs to see what was for breakfast.

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_Chapter 2: And he appears End_


End file.
